Becoming a Writer: College Composition introduces students to writing as a conscious and developmental activity. Students learn to read, think, and write in response to a variety of texts, to develop and support claims with evidence, to integrate their ideas with those of others, and to treat writing as a recursive process. Through this work with texts, students are exposed to a range of reading and writing techniques they can employ in other courses. Students work individually and collaboratively, participate in peer review, reflect on their writing development through structured in-class and out-of-class activities, and develop an ePortfolio of their work. Students with a developmental writing placement are required to take SAS 011 (Engaging with Texts Writing Lab) concurrently with WRT 110. Students who want additional professional support while taking WRT 110 may opt into SAS 011.

This course provides students the opportunity to practice writing poetry. Through attention to the elements of craft in these creative forms and a range of prompts, students learn to develop free and formal verse that explores new possibilities for expression. Poetry assignments will follow prompts to create, for instance, poems drawn from their own lives, litanies, and pantoums. Attention to word choice, imagery, metaphor, and writing strong lines will be practiced across the genre. Students work toward creating and revising an original body of writings that, together, reveal an emergent creative voice. This course is a program elective for the English major and minor, the Writing minor, and the Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities major. This course also meets the Creative Arts Experience requirement in the Core Curriculum. 3.000 Credit hours

This course provides students the opportunity to practice writing literary short fiction. Through attention to the elements of craft in this creative form and a range of prompts, students learn to develop their appreciation for the short story genre and explore new possibilities for expression. Short fiction assignments will follow prompts to create shorter and longer works that will focus on elements of craft including, dialogue, character development, plot, and flashbacking. Attention to word choice, avoiding cliché, and developing strong characters will be practiced within the genre of short literary fiction. Students work toward creating and revising two original short stories that, together, reveal an emergent creative voice. This course is a program elective for the English major and minor, the Writing minor, and the Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities major. This course also meets the Creative Arts Experience requirement in the Core Curriculum. 3.000 Credit hours

This course introduces students to the basics of screenwriting and provides them with the opportunity to develop their storytelling craft. Through attention to the elements of the screenwriting craft and a range of prompts, students learn to harness their abilities as visual storytellers. Students will practice drawing on their memories, experiences, observation and, of course, imagination to create compelling characters and stories for the screen. Selected screenplays and scripts will be read and discussed during the course and the completed productions will be viewed to develop an understanding of how the script and serves as the blueprint for the finished project. Assignments will follow prompts to create, for instance, formatted scenes (both comedic and dramatic, and everything in between), show conflict and connection through dialogue and in the visual language of cinema, and create compelling characters in “real” settings (even if those settings are out of this world). Students work toward creating and revising a full act of an original feature-length screenplay (roughly 25-30 revised pages), as well as articulating the film’s entire arc and major plot points of the second and third acts of the script.

Students in this course will learn a number of principles involved in business and in technical communications. They will analyze specific rhetorical situations to craft messages that meet the purpose of the communication, the needs of the audience, and the relevant context. In addition, students will consider the appropriate media through which to communicate such messages. Working individually and collaboratively, students will produce both common office documents such as resumes, cover letters, memoranda, proposals, reports and technical documents such as instructions and fact sheets. This course satisfies an elective for the English major and minor, the Writing minor, and the Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities major.

Fiction Writing is an advanced writing course focused on reading and writing short stories. Studying and writing the short story helps one learn the elements that combine to create a fictional world and focus on using language in effective ways. In this workshop-based course, students become familiar with the terms used in discussing the craft of fiction and learn to recognize what makes good fiction successful. Fiction Writing Workshop connects writing theory to good writing practice through peer critique, conferencing, and the methodology of the writer's workshop. Students will read and write literary fiction. Literary fiction may use elements of genres such as science fiction, fantasy, horror, or romance, but it does not fit easily into these or other genres. This course fulfills an elective for both the English major and minor, an elective for the Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities major, and a discipline-specific writing requirement for the Writing minor. Prerequisite: WRT 111, WRT 211, WRT 212 or permission of the instructor. 3.000 Credit hours

Students in this project and team-based course will develop hands-on experience with the grand writing process. The course’s grand writing focus will be on nonprofit and/or government agency grant writing, and students will have some latitude in selecting the grants to which they will write project proposals. The ability to write grants is a highly marketable skill for those in such fields such as science, technology, health care and educations. Students will learn the basics of grant writing in a collaborative organizational environment, the work setting in which most people find themselves. Students in this project and team-based course will develop hands-on experience with the grant writing process. The course’s grant writing focus will be on nonprofit and/or government agency grant writing, and students will have some latitude in selecting the grants to which they will write project proposals. The ability to write grants is a highly marketable skill for those in such fields such as science, technology, health care and educations. Students will learn the basics of grant writing in a collaborative organizational environment, the work setting in which most people find themselves. This course is an elective in the Art and Design Media major, the Communications and Media Arts major, English major and minor, the Writing minor, the History major, and the Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities major.

Part of the Writing Fellows initiative to support student writing, this course prepares students to enter elect core courses as dedicated peer tutors. As a practicum, it runs simultaneously with the tutoring assignment and provides opportunities for students to troubleshoot problems that emerge in tutoring sessions. Students learn ways of reading, and responding to peer writing, specifically, with strategies for idea development, reading comprehension, integrating textual evidence and revision. As part of their work for this course, fellows can expect to meet regularly with their faculty partner and to attend some class meetings for the course they are supporting. This course is required for all first-time writing fellows.